When I first indicated that I was looking for topics to discuss on my blog, a friend suggest youth sports issues. Now I do not profess to know all there is to know about youth sports issues and I am somewhat removed from youth sports these days. However I have a few friends and I know others who are firmly entrenched. I also remember fondly my days of being a youth sports parent and a youth sports coach. I am somewhat grateful that I no longer have a young athlete. From what I have seen these days things are becoming more and more intense.

My greatest concern regarding youth sports is that kids are specializing in one particular sport so young. I feel that kids should play every sport that might want to play for as long as they can. It does’t seem sensible to place all of your eggs in one basket so young. However this current age of AAU competition has created a situation where many athletes have to choose one sport over others. For example when school basketball leagues end in March many kids have to immediately try out for AAU teams which play through the spring and summer. This might require a baseball player to make a tough choice.

In addition to the specialization there is the issue of cost. Youth sports have become such a financial burden for parents. Parents are responsible for registration fees to join teams. Parents pay additional fees for AAU teams which often include travel and lodging expenses. In addition, today’s kids all want to wear the newest shoes, the special socks which are the new trend and all of the other popular gear. And in the age of modern parenting we dare not disappoint our children.

Beyond spoiling our children with material things, today’s helicopter parent gets way way too involved in the process of team management, the coaches job. Gone are the days when parents trusted their kids to the male or female role models, in the form of coach, and allowed the coach to do what he or she had committed themselves to do, which is build young athletes and young men and women. There was a time when parents would pull up to the practice field and drop their kids off, pausing long enough to confirm with coach that practice would end at the usual time. Today parents bring the beach chair or take their spot in the bleacher to “support their child” or is it to let coach know that they are there. Parents have to commit to allowing their children to rise and or fall based strictly on their athletic ability.

So where did we turn the corner? What has caused parents to take this posture where their children are concerned. Are today’s parents so involved as a means to giving their children an advantage or a leg up toward a college scholarship or an opportunity to get to college. Is that really it? Or is it that we don’t want our kids to be disappointed, we don’t want them to “feel bad.” This is consistent with the concept that all of the kids get a trophy for participating and just “giving it a try” is worthy of an award, the same award as all the other players. No superlatives, no cuts nothing to distinguish the strongest athletes from the others. This sugar coating of reality is detrimental to the development of children today.

When I was a youth football coach I would often do an experiment mid-season. I would take a couple of my weaker players and allow them to be captains and pick teams for a intra squad scrimmage. As is said earlier, the kids would take turns selecting the best players on the team. Kids, left to their own devices know who is who and who has what skills. We know this from the school yard growing up. And truth be told, if the adults stay out of things the kids would probably be fine with the results.
I have only begun to scratch the surface of the issues involved in youth sports today. I invite a further dialogue on this issue.